Date of Award

6-9-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2016.

Department

Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Ben Steichen

Abstract

For this project, we have implemented an integrated interactive platform tailored for students and professors. Classes at Santa Clara University come in a variety of sizes and styles, with multiple professors teaching multiple students. These professors have different teaching methods that have to cater to students' different learning styles. One of the main features of our platform is a chat room where professors can collect information from their students. Students are able to ask questions about said topic or answer the professor's posted questions about the topic as well as other students' questions. With our platform, we hope to increase the interactivity between student and professor, making keeping up in class a smoother and more active experience. The main technologies implemented in this project are basic web languages: HTML, Javascript, and CSS. One of the main goals of the project was to be as simple as possible to minimize distractions, so we used the Bootstrap framework to keep our site organized and consistent. The backbone of our project is an online database driven by Parse that stores all of our chat log data, our user data, and the Power Point slides required to run our project. We tested this project in multiple classrooms with various class demographics. Results are generally positive, with most student users recommending this system to their other professors. The students enjoyed the comfort of being able to ask questions without anxiety or fear of embarrassment due to our anonymity feature we implemented. The professors greatly appreciated the increased amount of participation that Boip provided as well as their ability to answer questions on the fly without having to interrupt the lecture with students raising their hands. Overall, the tempo of the lectures were greatly increased and the general flow was improved.

Some key features that would be helpful if implemented would include a more integrated method to insert Power Point slides and a filtration system for the chatroom. Currently, chatting can get a little out of hand with spam and inappropriate messages. So far we have countered this by having the professor emphasize professionalism before his or her lecture, but a more blunt idea would be to implemented a chat filter that would block inappropriate key words. The second thing that would be helpful is a more integrated method of uploading slides. The method of uploading slides can be tedious as one has to constantly switch tabs to Google Drive to enable permissions and grab the URL of a slideshow, so hopefully in the future adding a friendlier method of adding slides would greatly increase the platform's usability and make it easier on professors.

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